IOATHAM

IOATHAM. – Son of Gideon (Iudc. 9:7–21, 57). He was the only one to escape the massacre of his brother Abimelech (v. , n. 2), who, after their father’s death, slaughtered all his brothers and had himself proclaimed king by the Shechemites. Having climbed Mount Garizim, I. then addressed the citizens of Shechem with the fable of the trees that elect themselves a king (Iudc. 9:8–15).

This is the oldest example of an apologue or fable in the Bible, and one of the most celebrated in the whole of world literature, in four rhythmic stanzas corresponding to the four trees presented. First making the most common fruit-bearing plants in Palestine speak (the olive, the fig tree, and the vine), and then the thornbush, beneath whose shade the trees finally ask for protection, I. skillfully highlights the bad choice made by the Shechemites in entrusting themselves to a bloodthirsty king, whereas his father Gideon (or Jerubbaal), although he had saved Israel from the Midianites, had consistently refused to accept the royal dignity offered to him. The fable is a rebuke to the Shechemites who, by living together with Abimelech, had shown themselves ungrateful toward the family of Gideon, so ferociously exterminated. Therefore, to escape the plots of his cruel brother, I. took refuge in Beer and never appeared again.

IOATHAM. — King of Judah (ca. 737–733 B.C.). He was associated in the reign by his father Uzziah or Azariah, who had been struck with leprosy for having improperly meddled in matters of worship (II Par. 26, 16 ff.). He is credited with sixteen years of reign (II Reg. 15, 33), thirteen of them jointly with his father and three or four on his own. The victory over the Ammonites, mentioned in II Par. 27, 5 (cf. 26, 7), probably belongs to the years of co-regency. He was a zealous Jahwist king, but, like his predecessors generally, he tolerated the superstitious rites on the bāmāth, or high places, to which the people remained tenaciously attached (II Par. 27, 2).

He built the “upper gate of the Temple”; he also carried out other constructions in the wall of the Ophel (the southern continuation of the Temple hill). He likewise built several cities and constructed towers and fortresses (II Par. 26, 3 ff.; II Reg. 15, 35). In the time of this king, hostilities against the kingdom of Judah began on the part of the king of Syria, Rasin, PHARES (v.), king of Samaria; but the threat became more serious only during the years of his successor Achaz (cf. II Reg. 15, 37; Is. 7, 1).